1300 BROADWAY
DENVER
CO 80203
On February 24, 2019, Colorado and the nation lost one of the most effective and strongest advocates for parents with disabilities, Carrie Ann Lucas, when she died at the age of 47. Ms. Lucas was the Case Strategy Director for the ORPC at the time of her death. Her untimely death was a crushing loss for both the disabled community and the legal community. Ms. Lucas lived with a rare form of muscular dystrophy for three decades. Though Ms. Lucas had planned to go into ministry, she changed course and went to law school after struggling to adopt her niece out of foster care due to discrimination based on her own disability. Ms. Lucas’ advocacy was instrumental in amending Colorado’s law to ensure that a parent’s disability cannot be the sole reason for denial of custody, adoption, foster care, or guardianship of a child and to ensure that parents with disabilities receive reasonable accommodations to allow them to reunify with their children. Part of Ms. Lucas’ immense impact was through her work at the ORPC, where she advocated for the rights of parents with disabilities. To honor Ms. Lucas’ memory and to ensure that her important work continues after her passing, the ORPC holds this annual training in her honor. The goal of this training is to educate child welfare stakeholders about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the ADA’s application in Dependency & Neglect Cases, and resources that are available to parents and families with disabilities.
TOPICS COVERED
- The ADA—who is bound, who is protected, what is a disability?
- How the ADA applies in D&N cases
- Working effectively with people with disabilities
- Disability & education advocacy
- Resources available to people, especially parents, with disabilities
- Guidance from the Federal Department of Health and Human Services
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